Sinful Colors Star Fish: O.P.I. Sparrow Me The Drama dupe?

Recently there's been a lot of buzz in the nail polish blogosphere about this collection from Sinful Colors and whether the colours are dupes (blatant rip offs?) of OPI's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides collection.

(FYI I think only the 5 shades pictured in the poster are part of the ‘Adventure Island’ collection.. the others didn’t have ‘sea’ themed names and were probably put there just to fill the display)

Beauty Blogazon Roundup 6/19-6/25

Some great posts from the lovely ladies of the Beauty Blogger Support Group.

Lip Tar and MAC Surf Baby Lipstick Give Away Winner on Cosmetically Challenged

Hard Candy Beetle on the Life and Polish blog

500 Follower Giveaway 6 winners on Midnight Manicures

Zoya Touch Swatches on Kewtified

Animal Manicure on Bright Lights Big Color

My First Nubar on A Day in the Life

PritiNYC Summer Day Kit Swatches on Polished to the Nines

Multidimensional Mani on Nailderella Nails

You're Moody, Bish on Lambchop Mobile

Home Laser Hair Removal Guide on Beauty and Fashion Tech

Review: Mary Kay Love Lash Mascara on Style Eyes

A rainbow tape mani from Let Them Have Polish

Are You Down With OCC? Polish Insomniac is.

Pink Glitter Mani on Bookworm Nails

Battle of brush cleaner on Purple Eye Diamond

Get to know JoElle Skincare on Creatively Yours By Ro

Continuing Education in Artistry on Royal Beauty Designs

Review: e.l.f. Studio Cream Eyeliner in Plum Purple on Beauty Mamas

Essie Ruby Slippers on Nails and Noms

Walking the Plank on Polish Pauper

Get in the Mood for Friday with Tara's Nails

Real French Perfume from Fragonard on Reve Noir

Enter the Nicole By OPI Texture Giveaway on Addicted to All Things Pretty

Are you tired of the bandwagon trends? Glitter Gloss Garbage is.

Review: e.l.f. Studio Cream Eyeliner in Plum Purple

I’m an eyeliner girl. I’m pretty much addicted. For years, it was the one thing I'd have to be wearing before I left the house (now it's mascara! but I still love me some eyeliner). Black, brown, gold, blue, green, I love ‘em all. I’ve lined my waterline for as long as I’ve been using makeup, and I used to like doing winged liner because it made my eyes look more ‘asian’ (ok I still do that).

I’ve used a few different types (pencil, liquid, felt tip, gel) and there are pros and cons to all of them. Cream or gel eyeliner is easy to use and pigmented, but can be prone to creasing and fading so I don’t often use it.

I had read some good reviews about the e.l.f. Studio Cream Eyeliner online, but didn’t think a $3 product would be very long lasting or water resistant.

Manicure Monday & Where fore art thou battery charger???

Hey Beauties!

I'm sorry for the long absence, but I have lost my camera battery charger so I've been unable to take any photos lately :( I don't really want to take review & swatch pictures with my Galaxy S because the quality just isn't the same. HOPEFULLY the charger is just in a weird random place that my kids found and thought it would be funny to stash Mama's things in.

I've been learning a lot about Photoshop lately, so I may do a few posts on that in the next week!

Today I wanted to change the look of my nails without spending too much time on them. I've been wearing Sinful Colors Social Ladder, which is a frosty nude white with a hint of pink. I wanted to cover up the few chips and tipwear, but I didn't have time to do a full mani, so I pulled out the trusty glitter.

Glitter nail polish is great for covering up chips, mistakes or tipwear and to give your 3 day old manicure a fresh new look without doing too much to them. I'm using Milani Gems from the Jewel FX collection, which is an almost exact dupe of deborah lipmann Happy Birthday.

EDIT: Added more pics because I was super lazy yesterday and only put up two!

Review: NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils

Morning Beauties :)

I’m a lover of vibrant colours (who isn’t?), but for some reason most of my eyeshadows are on the sheer side. I guess I like the softness of it, but I do wish some of them had a bit more colour payoff.

Enter the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil.

$4.50 – From NYX Cosmetics

A radiant eye liner that also doubles as an eye shadow. Made with a blend of mineral oil and powder, our creamy Jumbo Eye Pencils glide on effortlessly—no pulling, tugging or fading—and come in a rainbow of vivid hues. Some call her chubby. We say voluptuous. Available in 28 shades.

INGREDIENTS: Bees Wax, Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba)wax, Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla)wax, Ceresin, Microcrystalline Wax, Polyethylene, Octyldodeanol, Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Isostearyl Isostearate, Isononyl Isononanoate, Tocopheryl Acetate, B.H.A., Isopropylparaben, Isobutylparaben, Butylparaben. MAY CONTAIN: Mica (CI77019), Titanium Dioxide (CI77891), Iron Oxide Red (CI77491), Iron Oxide Yellow (CI77492), Carmine (CI75470), Chromium Oxide Green (CI77288), Ultramarine Blue (CI77007), Ferric Ferrocyanid (CI77510), FD&C Blue No.1 Aluminum Lake (CI42090), D&C Red No.6 (CI15850), D&C Red No.7 Ca Lake (CI15850), D&C Red No.27 Al Lack (CI45410:1).

L - R: French Fries, Strawberry Milk, Milk.

Manicure Monday: Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris & Kaleidoscope

It's Monday!!!!!! :) :) :)

I figured if I act enthusiastic about it, it would make me feel enthusiastic about it :p

I was getting a little bored with all the pastels and brights I've been wearing on my nails lately and decided to break it up a bit with Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris - $1.99. It's a black satin creme which is a part of the Fast Dry collection. Plain black felt a bit emo, so I jazzed it up with some sparkle, Wet n Wild Kaleidoscope - $0.99, which is in their Wild Shine collection. Both of these polishes are really inexpensive and pretty good quality too.

Oh, I also made a little temporary lightbox from this tutorial on VioletLeBeaux.com. It doesn't look very pretty, but it works ok. I tested it out for this post, but I only have one light source right now so it's not exactly how I wanted it to look. One step at a time!

This is two coats of Ebony Hates Chris and two coats of Kaleidoscope.

In the flash you can see all that pretty multicoloured glitter just light up and sparkle... It's beautiful! I think it looks like space :)

The glitter in Kaleidoscope tends to collect more at the tips so you have to be careful when applying it, otherwise you'll end up with none near the cuticle and big globs of it down at the tips of your nails. Ebony Hates Chris drags a bit so you need to use a light hand and plenty of polish on your brush, otherwise you'll end up with streaks.

Dry time on Ebony Hates Chris was really fast, about 5 minutes. Kaleidoscope was a lot longer, but I sped up the process by using my Rush topcoat. I'm actually running out of it so I need to either buy more, or another brand. The Orly Sec n Dry was a big, massive fail due to horrible shrinkage and peeling... The Rush topcoat dries really fast and doesn't cause shrinkage, but it doesn't prevent chipping well and it also tends to get sucked up by glitters and doesn't provide that really shiny, smooth surface I'm after. I think I might get a regular top coat for that smooth and shine and use the Rush topcoat over it to dry my nails quickly. I've heard a lot of good things about the Zoya system, so I might give it a go.

Well that's my mani for today :) I know I've been super boring lately with my nails and I definitely want to try out some nail art soon.. It's a learning process though and I hardly have time to sit down and do my nails, let alone do nail art!

What are you wearing on your nails today?

Ishah xx

Silent Sunday